PLI scheme effective: India exports $ 1.5 billion worth of smartphones

Smartphones
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Indian government's much-touted PLI scheme, a carrot for the electronics and smartphone companies to make India their manufacturing hub, seems to be paying dividends. 

India's total exports of smartphones is expected to cross $1.5 billion in value by the end of this year. This would be around 98% of the total mobile phones exported out of India.

According to the research firm techARC, a total of 12.8 million mobile phones were exported from India since January to September 2020.  Of this there were 10.9 million smartphones.

Covid-19 had a severe impact on the exports with volume sharply falling to 1.2 million in April-June quarter from 7.4 million in January-March period.  For July-September quarter the exports, however, were at 4.2 million units indicating a smart recovery.

Announcing the report, Faisal Kawoosa, Founder & Chief Analyst, techARC said, “India has been exporting mobiles to destinations like UAE and neighbouring SAARC countries for quite some time.  However, ‘Make in India’ initiative has made India a truly global exporter of mobile phones.”

Galaxy A 51 is the topper

Countries India exports its smartphones to

(Image credit: techArC)

India is exporting to 24 countries, some of which are further re-exporting, like UAE, to other markets making Indian made phones available to millions of users.

Faisal also said that the recently announced PLI scheme will further strengthen India’s positioning in the global mobile market.

The government had cleared 16 proposals from domestic and international companies (including 10 from smartphone manufacturers) entailing an investment of Rs 11,000 crore. 

This is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India scheme where companies stand to gain between 4% to 6% on additional sales of goods produced locally in the next five years. 

Among the brands, Samsung, which is part of the PLI scheme, lead the exports with 11.6 million units. It is followed by Xiaomi at 0.6 million shipments.  

Samsung exported 9.8 million units of smartphones followed by Xiaomi at 0.6 million and Lava at 0.2 million smartphones.  The other smartphone exporters in top 5 are Vivo and OnePlus.

Samsung Galaxy A51 is the most exported smartphone from India. The top 10 smartphones exported from India are from Samsung. 

Lava has emerged as the ‘torchbearer’ Indian brand which is not only the lone domestic brand exporting mobiles but also pecks in top 5 brands. 

"Indian brands are now exporting to extended markets like USA. 7 brands are exporting mobile phones from India to the US. 21 brands are exporting mobiles from India. 17 brands are exporting Smartphones," the report said.

Source: techARC

Balakumar K
Senior Editor

Over three decades as a journalist covering current affairs, politics, sports and now technology. Former Editor of News Today, writer of humour columns across publications and a hardcore cricket and cinema enthusiast. He writes about technology trends and suggest movies and shows to watch on OTT platforms.